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Timeline of modern history (1914-1929)
1910s: The Great War *1914: An assasination in Sarajevo of the Austrian regent results in a diplomatic crisis between Russia and Austria, sparking off the Great War. *1915: 7 May: A sailor slips and falls when arming a torpedo on board the German submarine U-20. The following delay makes the shot miss the steamer Lusitana by a few inches. *1916: General Pétain, incapacitated by renal colic in February, is unable to assume command of French forces near Verdun, and is replaced by General Nivelle. France loses the Battle of Verdun one month later. England withdraws from the Great War in July, following the Somme massacre. Peace is signed 12 July. Known as the Isle of Wight Treaty, it is dubbed the "Treaty of Shame" by Winston Churchill and Georges Clémenceau. *1917: Despite the desperate requests of the French government, the United States remains neutral. President Taft recalls the American embassy to France in September, and advises American residents in France to leave France. A coup is launched against the Russian Imperial government in October by a group called the Bolsheviks, but is put down. As its leader Lenin seeks asylum in Western Europe, Leon Trotsky, a Bolshevik, joins a Bolshevik splinter group, known as the Vidalist movement. The Viddalists organise a revolution which is successful on 8 December. The Imperial household flees St Petersburg and are never seen again. The Treaty of Taoyuan is signed in secret between the German Empire and Japan, in which German cedes its Asian possessions to Japan in return for guaranteed Japanese neutrality in the Pacific. *1918: With the Treaty of Brest Litovsk signed with Vidalist Russia in January, Germany continues the war on the Western Front, and successfully dominates the field in March at the battles of Épinal and Château-thierry. In France, political stability develops in the wake of exhaustion, and many of the members of the Legislature, France's legislative body, sue for peace, but others still demand to continue. Others still join the Vidalist cause for pan-European revolution and call for the end of the "bourgeois militarist republic." Meanwhile, a war breaks out in Western Russia in February. Organised by Leon Trotsky, the Red Army of Vidalist Workers make slow gains and eventually prevail throughout the European half in Russia, unopposed by their former foes the Germans. A M''akhnovist'' uprising in October sees the end of Skoropadsky's Ukranian hetman''ate. At the same time, France capitulates and signs the Versailles Treaty on 11 November, ending her role as a belligerent in the Great War. Martial law is imposed and diplomats commence drafting a provisional constitution for a new monarchy. Elsewhere, China and Italy are the only powers opposing the hitherto successful Central Powers worldwide, but the cost of war has left their governments bankrupt and their people hungry, who consequently start uprisings against their governments. Without further opposition, all resistance in the Alps crumbles, and Austria regains control of Northern Italy and creates the Kingdom of Padania. *1919: The Empire of German signs the Dresden Treaty in March, and Austria-Hungary is subsequently annexed to the German Empire. Kaiser Wilhelm II is assasinated during the "Unity Parade" in Vienna by Ernst Goldmann, a member of the Spartakists, a German communist movement. The movement is soon driven underground. The succeeding German Crown Prince proves to be an incompetent statesman, creating discontent amongst politicians and military leaders alike. His thoughtlessness particularly irritates marshalls Hindenburg and Ludendorff, who call himk a "spoiled child, unable to lead an Empire". Fortuer disaster strikes in November as the dismantling of the German war economy sees mass layoffs of arms production workers by Krupp and arms factories throughout the Ruhr valley are closed, while demobilised soldiers are left without jobs. The Crown Prince rebuffs all requests by trade unions to seek a solution. In Russia, Denikin's army is defeated in the summer by the Red Army. A treaty signed between the Vidalist Red Army and the local ''makhnovschina results in Ukraine being united with the new Vidalist State, and the captured General Denikin is executed by being hung from an apple tree. Eager to exploit the instability in former Entente regions, Vidalist intervention to create new republics only to result in the fracturing of China and Italy into several city-states ruled over by warlords, and political repression of socialist movements in Japan. The House of Savoy leaves Rome, and proclaims the establishment of the Principality of New Sardinia. Spain, with the help of exiled Russian generals, annexes a weakened and war-weary Portugal, citing a need to maintain "peace and order".